Tom Cave maintains forward march on third day of Wales Rally GB

Welsh rally driver Tom Cave continued to work his way up the leader board on the third day of competition on the 2013 Wales Rally of Great Britain. Cave, who celebrated his 22nd birthday on the third leg and partnered by Ieuan Thomas, set top three WRC2 stage times in his Morris Lubricants-supported Ford Fiesta R5, to add to his tally of five class stage wins on the second day.

Tom and Ieuan began the day by leaving the service park with a further 40 seconds of lateness penalties following the completion of a rear differential change in the first service of the day, carried over from the previous evening's service which overran. However, undeterred by this, they set about picking up where they left off last night.

The second day was dry but the stage conditions were far from it. For the first loop of two stages, the levels of grips changed almost from corner to corner and Tom established a pace that would help him to move up the standings yet minimise the risks of a problem. Over the first four stages, Tom and Ieuan were third-fastest on three and fourth-fastest on the other, right in the thick of a developing WRC2 battle.

On the fourth stage of the day, Tom experienced the treacherous conditions first-hand, with what he described as a 'huge' moment which he admitted cost some time and knocked his confidence for the last few kilometres of the stage.

However, he was clearly undaunted, setting another top three stage time on the first of the rally's runs through the Dyfant stage, ahead of two runs around Chirk Castle.

The first of these was stopped due to safety concerns and Tom and Ieuan were given a notional time, based on that from the second run around the test. However, here, their throttle jammed open and they ran wide into a straw bale and dropped time, so the disadvantage was multiplied.

By the time they arrived at service at the Deeside service park, they had climbed from 15th to 12th overall and were now in fifth place in WRC2.

Commenting, Tom said; "It's been a really good day for us. The first two stages this morning were very challenging - the conditions were very slippery and it was so easy to make a mistake.

"It was important that we stayed focussed and the times were good. Elfyn [Evans] and Jari [Ketomaa] have been very fast today and that was expected of those guys. So I'm pleased to be near them.

"The times were good and the car has worked well today. The DMack tyres have been spot on all day - I can't fault them at all - so we are looking forward to tomorrow."

The third and final day of the event is another full day, with six stages, including a double run of the Kimmel Park spectator stage before the final test, a run on the Great Orme Road around the Orme peninsula before the crews arrive at the final ramp in Llandudno from 13.15pm.